Legal cases relating to leasehold issues that have been started in the county court can sometimes be transferred to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) in England, or the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal in Wales.
Section 176A of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 gives all courts the power to transfer matters that are within the appropriate tribunal’s jurisdiction. This is called a transferred application.
A court might transfer all or part of a case.
The process
One of the parties to a court case could request a transfer, or the court could decide to transfer a leasehold issue.
The court will:
- send a notice to all the parties
- send the tribunal an order of transfer, and all the relevant documents that have been filed
After a case has been transferred, the tribunal will treat it in the same way as a direct application. The claimant and defendant at the county court become the applicant and respondent at the tribunal.
The applicant might need to pay a fee. This will be the tribunal fee that is due, minus any court fee that the applicant has already paid.
Requesting a transfer
You might want to ask for a county court case that you’re involved in to be transferred to the tribunal. This can be helpful if you have a dispute with your landlord and they start proceedings against you at the county court. You might be able to get a better outcome at the tribunal if the case relates to your rights as a leaseholder.
For example, if your landlord applies to the county court to recover unpaid service charges from you, and you think the charges are not reasonable, you could ask for the case to be transferred to the tribunal.
The tribunal could then hear the case and use its expertise to make a decision about whether the charge is reasonable and whether you should have to pay.
Template letter
You can use our template to ask the court for a case to be transferred to the First-tier Tribunal.
Template letter: asking for case to be transferred to the tribunal
- Last updated:
- 3 September 2026
- Next review:
- 2 March 2027
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